Peace Week Delaware events set Sept. 15-23

Delaware’s Movement for a Culture of Peace, and dozens of organizations and individuals across the First State have again joined forces to conduct the third annual Peace Week Delaware, a nine-day series of inspiring, peace-filled events, from Saturday, Sept. 15 to Sunday, Sept. 23.

The annual celebration of nonviolence will feature more than 90 events statewide, including workshops, panels, exhibitions and speakers. All events are free, and people of all ages are welcome. This year’s roster includes many family-friendly programs.

Steering Committee Chair Kim Tull said, “We are inviting neighbors across the state to join forces and work toward a culture of peace. Through Peace Week Delaware, nonprofit, community and faith organizations, as well as our local businesses, will explore and discover alternatives to violence and injustice. We will turn hope into action.”

Tull also thanked generous event sponsors and donors sponsors for making Peace Week Delaware 2018 possible. Peace Week Delaware relies on numerous community sponsors to produce their own events, which are then registered and publicized by the all-volunteer steering committee, which has been meeting regularly since January. For a complete list of sponsors and events, go to www.peaceweekdelaware.org.

New to Peace Week Delaware 2018 are two collections. A tampon drive will help women below the poverty line with their personal hygiene needs. Donations will be accepted of feminine hygiene products such as tampons and pads at three locations during Peace Week: St. Stephan’s Lutheran Church, Unity Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Newark. Items for Syrian refugees will be collected during Peace Week by Silverside Church and the Unitarian Universalists of Southern Delaware.

The purpose of Peace Week Delaware is twofold: to facilitate cooperation and collaboration among community, nonprofit and faith organizations, building the state’s capacity to achieve goals for peace and justice; and to offer peace-loving people across Delaware the opportunity to join together to recognize the possibility of peace and to energize their actions.

Peace Week Delaware provides an alternative vision against the background of violence in Wilmington and across Delaware. The Movement for a Culture of Peace envisions a coordinated approach to search for alternatives to the prevailing culture of violence, based on education, economic opportunity, anti-racism, equal justice, respect for human rights, equality between women and men, respect for LGBTQ rights, democratic participation, the free flow of information, and disarmament of neighborhoods.